If your district limits student AI, the tools that fit are the ones where only the teacher has an account and students only ever receive paper or a finished file. For open-ended planning, use ChatGPT for Teachers or Gemini in Classroom. For ready-made resources, use MagicSchool's free plan, Chalkie or Diffit. For lessons with no screens at all, use Flip Education.
Two news items set the moment. New York City approved a one-year moratorium on September 2, 2026, that bars student use of generative AI from 2-K through eighth grade, and News12 reports that teachers can still use AI tools for lesson planning and operational tasks that meet city standards. Newsweek's October 15 roundup adds Los Angeles Unified's limits on student use on school-issued devices and Oklahoma's parent opt-out from student-facing AI. The question teachers are now asking is which tools they can keep using when their students cannot.
How this list was built
The pool is the lesson planning and resource creation category of the AI Educator Tools directory plus the general assistants teachers already use. I kept a tool only if a teacher can do real work in it without any student ever holding an account, and I read each vendor's own pricing or product page on October 19, 2026, along with OpenAI's and Google's data statements. No vendor paid for a place on this list.
Three kinds of statement appear below and are kept apart. "The vendor says" marks a provider claim. A citation marks what a source reported. "Our view" marks the editorial judgment. One directory number is worth knowing: 46 of the 143 records in the directory carry the "Student-Facing Tool" use case. The label is set per record, not per feature, so it cannot tell you whether a tool you plan to buy has a student mode one setting away. That is the gap the test below closes.
The student-touch test: four questions before you adopt
- Does a student ever log in, prompt, or read AI output on a screen? If yes, the tool is student-facing and a moratorium like New York City's covers it.
- Is a student mode one setting away? MagicSchool's Student Rooms and Gemini in Classroom's assign-to-class function are examples. Ask who can switch them on, and make the answer your administrator.
- What goes in? Lesson settings such as topic, grade and time are low risk. Student names, scores and writing are not, and need a district-approved agreement first.
- What comes out? A printed handout you have read is a teacher-made resource. A live link that students open is a different decision.
Our view: a tool passes when the answers are no, nobody but the administrator, lesson settings only, and paper. The list below is ordered by how fully each tool meets that bar for its job.
Comparison at a glance
Prices checked October 19, 2026 on each vendor's page.
| Tool | The job it does | Strengths | Limitations | Price / free tier | Privacy considerations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Open-ended planning and writing | Admin controls, connectors, custom GPTs | US K-12 verified educators only | Free through June 2028 per the page body; page description says June 2027 | Vendor says content is not used for training by default |
| Gemini in Classroom | Planning inside Google Classroom | 30+ educator tools, free in all Education editions | 18+ users, English only | Free for educators | Admin setting controls access |
| MagicSchool | A packaged toolbox of teacher tools | 80+ teacher tools on the free plan | Plus adds 50+ student tools | Free; Plus $8.33/user/month billed annually | Training use not stated on pricing page |
| Diffit | Leveled reading materials from any text | School plan states no student logins | Free plan lacks export and standards alignment | Basic free; school and teacher prices not listed | Vendor says it collects no student data |
| Flip Education | Screen-free active-learning lessons | Students never log in; printable materials | Free plan saves five missions | Spark free; from $7.99/month | Vendor says no student data on any tier |
| Chalkie AI | Slides plus tiered worksheets | Scaffold and Stretch versions together | Data handling not stated on page read | Free: 5 resources a week; paid from $6.65/month billed annually | Unverified, see below |
Best for open-ended planning: ChatGPT for Teachers
ChatGPT for Teachers (the directory page is ChatGPT) is the best fit for a teacher who needs a general assistant for planning, parent emails and rewriting texts, because the account belongs to the teacher and students have no seat in it. The directory lists ChatGPT, the consumer product, at 4.35 from 23 reviews; that rating is not specific to this teacher workspace.
- Pricing: OpenAI says the workspace is free for verified U.S. K-12 educators, with verification through SheerID. The page body and subtitle say free through June 2028, while the page's meta description says June 2027. We treat June 2028 as the stated date and mark the discrepancy as unverified. OpenAI also says it may adjust pricing after the free period, with notice.
- Safety: OpenAI says anything you share is "not used to train our models by default" and describes the workspace as designed to help schools meet FERPA requirements. That is the provider's claim, not a compliance verdict. The page describes a workspace for "classroom materials and student information"; for this list, keep student names out unless your district has approved the tool in writing.
- Watch out for: US K-12 only, and general chat will answer anything, so a teacher-only account is a rule your district has to state, not a feature the tool enforces.
- Choose something else when: you want a printable resource without writing a prompt. Use Chalkie or Flip Education.
Best for planning inside Google Classroom: Gemini in Classroom
Gemini in Classroom (directory page: Google Gemini) is the best fit for teachers in Google Workspace for Education districts, because Google says users 18 and over in all Workspace for Education editions have free access to more than 30 educator tools, with an admin setting that controls who gets them. The directory lists Google Gemini at 4.59 from 41 reviews.
- Pricing: free of charge for educators, per Google's June 30, 2025 announcement. The tools are English-only and limited to users designated 18 and over.
- Safety: Google's August 2024 data protection announcement says data in Workspace for Education is "not used to improve Gemini or other generative AI models." Google's admin documentation says the Gemini app can be turned on or off, and that Gemini access in individual services can be set by organizational unit or group.
- Watch out for: the announcement describes tools for educators and assigning generated content to classes, but does not say whether students can use any of the features. Whether students touch any Gemini feature in your domain is unverified until your administrator confirms the settings.
- Choose something else when: your district does not use Google Workspace. Use ChatGPT for Teachers.
Best for a packaged toolbox: MagicSchool
MagicSchool is the best fit for a teacher who wants one place with dozens of ready-made teacher tools, because the free plan covers the teacher side and Student Rooms start at the paid tier. The directory lists it at 4.74 from 19 reviews.
- Pricing: MagicSchool's pricing page lists Free at $0 with 80+ teacher tools; Plus at $8.33 per user per month billed annually ($99.96 a year) or $12.99 billed monthly, adding 50+ student tools and Student Rooms; and Enterprise at custom pricing.
- Safety: the vendor lists FERPA, COPPA, SOC 2, GDPR and New York Ed Law 2-D compliance and says a custom data privacy agreement comes with Enterprise. The page does not say whether inputs are used to train models, so that is unverified.
- Watch out for: Plus bundles the student tools, so upgrading brings the student-facing side with it. The page also lists class writing feedback and quizzes in the Free feature list but marks them unavailable on Free in its comparison grid; we could not resolve which is current.
- Choose something else when: a district-wide restriction means any student mode must be absent from the contract. Use Diffit or Flip Education.
Best for leveled reading materials: Diffit
Diffit is the best fit for adapting a text or topic into reading materials at several levels, because its own school plan page states "No student logins, no student AI" and says it does not collect student data. Those are the vendor's claims. The directory lists it at 4.20 from 5 reviews, a small sample.
- Pricing: Diffit's pricing page shows a free Basic plan that keeps content created in the last 90 days and allows PDF download, printing and sharing. Export to Google, Canva or Microsoft, standards alignment and full history are not on Basic. The school plan is a flat annual subscription tiered by enrollment, and the page lists no price for it or for individual teacher licenses.
- Safety: teachers can share resources with students on the free version, so what students receive is a teacher-reviewed resource, not an AI interface. Check the district agreement before any student information is entered.
- Watch out for: the free plan's 90-day window means resources you need next semester must be downloaded.
- Choose something else when: you need a whole lesson, not a text. Use Chalkie.
Best for lessons with no screens: Flip Education
Flip Education is the best fit for a teacher whose goal is a lesson students do not touch a device for, because the vendor says students never log in and missions run offline from printed guides, with about 85 percent of class time physical and off-screen. The directory has no reviews yet for this tool.
- Pricing: Flip's FAQ lists Spark free (five missions with all 64 methodologies), Single Subject at $7.99 a month, Multi-Subject at $14.99, All Subjects at $21.99, a 25 percent discount for annual billing, and school plans priced per teacher per year with a five-teacher minimum.
- Safety: the vendor says it collects no student data on any tier, and that the AI receives only lesson settings (topic, method, class size, grade, time, country). It says teacher account data is stored on AWS servers in Frankfurt, and a data processing agreement is available by email. Our directory record lists United States hosting, which does not match the vendor's FAQ, so the directory entry needs a correction.
- Watch out for: free missions are saved to your device, up to five.
- Choose something else when: you need slides or a text at several reading levels. Use Chalkie or Diffit.
Best for slides plus tiered worksheets: Chalkie AI
Chalkie AI is the best fit for turning one topic into a slide deck and Scaffold and Stretch worksheets together, because the free-plan page lists five resources a week with exports to Google Slides, PowerPoint and PDF. The directory lists it at 4.88 from 26 reviews, the highest of the six.
- Pricing: free at five resources a week, with paid plans from $6.65 a month billed annually. The page shows no other tiers.
- Safety: the page links to privacy, data processing agreement and responsible AI documents but does not describe data handling, and it does not say whether students have accounts. Both are unverified; read the privacy policy before use.
- Watch out for: generated answer keys need checking by hand before anything is printed.
- Choose something else when: you must see the vendor's data terms on the page before you start. Use Flip Education.
Names you will be asked about
Khanmigo is left out on purpose: the directory describes it as AI tutoring for learners, which is student-facing. Brisk Teaching is a popular teacher extension, but I did not check its current student features or pricing for this post, so it is not ranked. Gemini Notebook, the tool Google renamed from NotebookLM in July 2026, is listed in the directory at 4.84 from 90 reviews; its student access was not checked here.
A worked example: a grade 5 fractions lesson under a student-AI moratorium
This is a plan, not a classroom report. The lesson is adding fractions with unlike denominators, 45 minutes, grade 5.
- Ask ChatGPT for Teachers or Gemini in Classroom for a lesson sequence for the standard, with three common misconceptions. Enter no student names.
- Use Flip Education to build the screen-free activity from the same topic, grade and time, or Chalkie for a Scaffold and Stretch worksheet pair.
- Work every answer-key problem yourself before printing.
- Students receive paper only. Nothing a student sees is an AI interface, which is the line a student-facing moratorium draws.
A note for teachers who sell resources
Chalkbeat reported on October 15, 2026 that Teachers Pay Teachers plans to ban AI-generated resources, wanting materials that are "unique, expertly crafted, and AI-free." The policy is described as forthcoming with no effective date given. Teacher-only tools help with your own classroom; wait for the final policy before listing anything AI-drafted for sale.
The bottom line
Teacher-only is a property of the account and the output, not of the brand. Pick the tool for the job, run the four questions, and get your administrator to confirm the student modes are off. Browse the full directory and the school administration and safety category for the policy side. For the data checks a district runs first, see AI Tools a School Can Approve, and for time saved across the week, see AI tools that reduce teacher workload.
By Dan Fitzpatrick, founder of The AI Educator and the AI Educator Tools directory.
